Helping Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier, and Daniel Cormier to Cut Weight, Nutritionists Explain the Excruciatingly Painful Process of MMA

Published 10/19/2023, 5:26 AM EDT

Weight cutting is a big challenge for any fighter. However, fighters like Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, and Dustin Poirier had plenty of help from the top experts. All three of these fighters had the same nutritionists who helped them cut weight before a major fight.

While McGregor had to go on a whole different diet, Poirier had to fast like no one ever had. Meanwhile, Cormier put in his efforts and emerged the champion. The nutritionists opened up about the personal stories of each of these fighters in a recent interview.

Conor McGregor’s weight cut was insane

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The nutritionists behind Conor McGregor’s weight cut ahead of the 2015 Jose Aldo fight recently opened up to GQ Sports. George Lockart and Dan Leith had a hand behind many weight cuts before ‘The Notorious’. And it wasn’t their first time making a champion.

“the meal that I gave him(McGregor), I think it was seven times a day. And his coach, Coach Kavanagh, was like, “I love you, George, but there’s no way “that he’s gonna be able to eat all this food, ‘you know, and have the weight come down.’ So he started following the program, lost like five pounds the next two days,” said Lockhart about McGregor’s cut.

To know more about MMA fighters’ prep for the octagon, tune in to the ESFanCast, LIVE this Friday at 8:00 AM ET. We sit down with Tristin Kennedy, the Man behind Conor McGregor’s Unparalleled Fitness for over 10 years.

The fighter had to cut down to 145 pounds in order to compete in the featherweight bout. McGregor would go on to win that fight by knocking out Aldo in 13 seconds. Even Daniel Cormier came out as a champion after the nutritionist duo helped him cut down weight.

“. . . with Daniel, he made weight effectively, followed all of our protocols for oral rehydration. He went in and had a five-round battle with Alexander Gustafsson and he got better and sharper every round, he never got tired, he won the fight, I thought, in really decisive fashion.”

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The Cormier vs. Alexander Gustafsson fight was amazing to witness. It went on for five rounds and ended with Cormier on top. He became the light heavyweight champion and it was all because the duo helped him get there. If that wasn’t enough, the duo were also behind Dustin Poirier’s first featherweight victory.

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The duo that helped Poirier make weight

At featherweight, Poirier was set to face his opponent Josh Grispi for the first time. The UFC 125 bout was scheduled for the two but Poirier had to go through some pretty intense fasting to make the required weight. Here’s his whole process explained by the nutritionists.

“He had to lose like 28 pounds in 21 days to get down to 145, which he’d never actually fought before. So what we do is a 24-hour fast. What we’ll do is have ’em work out, let’s say, Friday morning. They fast for the 24 hours, and then they do another workout the next day and then we reload ’em again.”

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After this rigorous fasting, Poirier managed to lose weight and went on to win his fight via decision. Clearly, the duo knows their job and does it well too. Now, it remains to be seen which megastar they help as their next client. However, do you think it’s more difficult to cut weight or gain it? Let us know in the comments.

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Written by:

Prit Chauhan is a UFC Writer at EssentiallySports. Having worked as a content writer for three years in niches such as mass media marketing, he has also tried his hand at fiction writing, authoring a few short stories in the process. His writing experience, combined with his experience doing research work under the Univesity of California, Berkely, helps him weave fact-based narratives from the Mixed Martial Arts world without missing a beat.

Edited by:

Joyita Das

Helping Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier, and Daniel Cormier to Cut Weight, Nutritionists Explain the Excruciatingly Painful Process of MMA

Conor McGregor’s weight cut was insane

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The duo that helped Poirier make weight